Saturday, September 24, 2011

I just installed these beauties at the studio, they're pot-less plants from Glasshaus. We've assigned Sarah as our 'plant manager' so she'll just need to dip them in a bucket of water once a week. Clever work Glasshaus.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Anna from La Madre Bakery and styled her new range of breads. (Have you tried their bread - it's bread as it should be!). I shot with photographer Cricket - it was a dream team, we had a great day and left with a great bank of images. Here's a look at one of my faves.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

At the beginning of this year I started sharing a studio with Scott and his crew at Swear Words in their new space in Richmond. It's been such a wonderful change to my working life. I get on with my business and they theirs, however more and more we are working across the same projects. A lot of the time Swear Words will put in me in touch with their clients and now wonderfully I can share the love back sending work their way. Our clients love that the interior design and branding are being developed side by side, by people who share a vision and a common goal.

So I was honoured when this week they nominated me as an Honorary Swearer in this months Cursive Newsletter. Read the full newsletter here:

Here's Scotts' artwork for this months Cursive newsletter, not only it is good looking, but clever too (yes I'm biased but it's true). I didn't see it the first time - but notice the Roman Numerals indicating issue 12? Genius love!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

A few months ago I received an email from Chao Huang, a young Chinese coffee enthusiast asking me to design his new specialist roastery in China. In what turned out to be the most modern working arrangement, we did the whole project over email, me sending floorplans, furniture designs and specs over email and regular photos being sent back to me to approve/comment on - all without one conversation in real time (not one phone call, and there's no Skype, You Send It, Twitter, Facebook and all other means of communication I so heavily rely on).

In fact the first time I spoke to Chao was when I landed in his hometown of Fuzhou and he collected me from the airport with his wife Jenny and their adorable son. In fact we did attempt for me to design the space from Melbourne, but I just couldn't do it without being there. The space was so unique, it was the orginal YMCA building built in 1952. So I flew to China for 2 days to conduct a site visit and lock in floor plans, in that timewe did that and more, I visited tile factories, light manufacturers and ATE. The amazing hospitality of Chao and his wife Jenny meant that we dined for hours every day, taking at least a 2 hour break each meal to try the local cuisine.

There were so mant firsts, it is the first specialty roaster in all of China, the first time I had worked overseas, my first visit to China and the first time I had worked without an architect. I am so pleased to say that it all went so smoothly, Chao and Jenny trusted me and gave me free reign to create something truly unique for the Chinese market. It was a real investment for this young couple to invest in a Western designer and I am so grateful that they did.

It seems the youth of Fuzhou have fully embraced the concept and already are flocking in large numbers to congregate and drink quality coffee. I don' t have any of my own photos to share with you as I've not been there since my visit before construction begun (crazy insane) so here are a few that Chao has sent through to me.

BTW Here is the site before - untouched for decades. I stripped back the render to reveal the beautiful old bricks and opened up the whole space, including removing the second story to create a floating cupping lab. God bless the local engineers who NEVER questioned my vision - they just made it happen.